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North Dakota’s House Judiciary Committee held a hearing this week on bill that “would allow elected officials with a valid concealed carry permit to carry a firearm in public buildings.” From the Bismarck Tribune (North Dakota) discussing the debate over the bill:

. . . “Statistics show that there is a direct correlation between the increase in the number of conceal-carry permits and the decline of violent crime,” [Rep.

Portland’s GoLocalPDX has a lead news story on the growth of concealed carry permits in the Portland area. Not enough information is presented in the article to determine the permit growth rate for all three counties, but Multnomah and Washington counties had a 41 percent growth in permits between 2011 and 2014 (42840/30429). …

. . . The Crime Prevention Research Center used public records to count 12 million Americans with concealed-carry permits. It’s probably a low estimate as numbers are not available for all states that issue licenses, and five states and most of Montana don’t even require permits to carry.

The horrible tragic death of Veronica J. Rutledge in Idaho obtained massive national news coverage. The 29-year-old mother was accidentally shot to death when her two-year-old reached into her handbag and fired her handgun.

The news coverage generally provided little context for the story. The main context was provided by data that had been put together by the Crime Prevention Research Center.…

A study by Crime Prevention Research Center, a gun-carrying advocacy site, looked at permit data from 2007-2013. It showed for each 1 percentage point increase in the adult population holding permits there is roughly associated with a 1.4 percent drop in the murder rate.

This quote is part of a long piece that Thinkprogress.org had on the risks of lead poisoning.

. . . John R. Lott is founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, a tax-exempt organization that works to “advance the scientific understanding of the relationship between laws regulating the ownership or use of guns, crime, and public safety.” His works include “More Guns, Less Crime” and “The Bias Against Guns,” and he has written several opinion pieces to the conservative Daily Caller.

A fresh report by the FBI would lead one to believe that mass shootings in the U.S. have dramatically increased during recent years. But according to economist John Lott — Founder and President of the Crime Prevention Research Center — the agency’s recent study is riddled with errors and may be nothing more than a bogus attempt to peddle a political agenda.

CNN’s John Blake has a new article on how race and guns. Bob Cottrol is also interviewed for the piece. Here is part of the discussion:

Some gun rights advocates say contemporary black communities could learn from that tradition of self-defense.
Restrictive gun control laws often victimize black people more than any other group because they suffer disproportionately from violent crime, says John R.

The July report by billionaire Michael Bloomberg’s funded gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety is “riddled with errors,” including mistakes in the number of shootings reported, the extent of the shooter’s mental illness and even where the attacks occurred, according to an analysis by gun researcher John Lott.